Who Ya Gonna Trust?

Gallup (an industry icon of polls, data driven stats, and employee engagement) has completed and posted their annual results of a look at honesty and ethics among various professions. For the 15th year, Nurses lead the pack as Americans rated them at the top of the list with 84% indicating their standards are “very high or high.”

The poll conducted December 7-11th, asked Americans to rate the ethical standards of 22 professions as very high, high, average, low, or very low. Only six professions obtained significant rates of “very high or high” scores – Nursing, Pharmacists, Medical Doctors, Engineers, Dentists, and Police Officers.

Ten professions scored less than 20% of “very high or high” in the poll this year. Those included Lawyers, State Governors, HMO Managers, Senators, Car Salespeople, and more. Likewise, Journalists did not fair well as pollsters provided an increasing 41% rate indicating their standards were “very low or low.” Also, Clergy ranking dropped to its lowest score of 44% “very high or high” rating since 1977 when it topped the entire list at 61%.

However (and perhaps not a surprise to some), within the same study, Members of Congress fell straight to the bottom of the list as their honesty and ethical standards rated a “very low or low” designation by 59% (and the least of 8% of “very high or high”) from random Americans participating in the study.

Survey Methods (per Gallup)Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Dec. 7-11, 2016, with a random sample of 1,028 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. View survey methodology, complete question responses and trends. Learn more about how the Gallup Poll Social Series works.

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